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Drive or take the train from Munich to lake garda

My wife and I are attending a wedding at lake Garda on July 4th. Flying to Munich on the 26thand planning to drive to lake Garda. I have not travelled to these places before and little bit curious whether it it smarter to take the train then driving. We are flying back from Munich on the 6th. Please advise, we want to take our time and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Spend 2 days in Munich and start driving on the 29th. Can we include our itinerary to Verona for one night before the wedding or is it too much. And we are driving what's the best town stay over nite? Can someone help us to make our trip worth while? Thanks in advance.

Posted by
8094 posts

Since you're going to be flying into and out of Munich, the rental car would be your best choice in transportation. It's autobahn/autostrada all the way to Lake Garda which is just northwest of Verona.
I would suggest you take a couple of days to drive the 270 miles into the Verona area. The Austrian Alps around Innsbruck are absolutely incredible in beauty.
You might do best to go ahead and stay somewhere on Lake Garda--a very beautiful place.

With a rental car, you could easily make a day trip to Venice. Be sure not drive over the speed limit on the causeway going out to Venice as they have radar cameras issue speeding tickets without giving any leeway.

Posted by
32171 posts

ravin,

As someone else mentioned, it would help to know where on Lago di Garda the wedding is taking place? Only Desanzano and Peschiera on the south end have rail stations, and towns at the north end (Limone, Malesine) are only served by Bus or Boat.

A few other points to mention.....

  • For driving in Italy, each driver will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L.
  • You'll have to be extremely vigilant to avoid the dreaded ZTL (limited traffic areas) in Italy, as hefty fines will result for each pass through one (which you won't know about until several months after you return home). There are also speed cameras including the Traffic Tutor which measures both instantaneous speed as well as average between two points.
  • As your journey south will likely take you through Austria, you MUST have the Austrian highway tax vignette (again, hefty fines).

Travel by train would be much easier but there are also some "caveats" to be aware of with those.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks ken and David for your response. We will be sayin at Hotel bellevire, Salo BS., what I'm hearing is to drive straight to lake Garda and spend our time, what is the chance of getting to Verona and see an opera?